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Daily Archives: February 14, 2016

Paper – ‘BPA-free’ plastic accelerates embryonic development, disrupts reproductive system

Via Science Daily – February 1, 2016 . University of California – Los Angeles Health Sciences: “Companies advertise “BPA-free” as a safer version of plastic products ranging from water bottles to sippy cups to toys. Many manufacturers stopped used Bisphenol A to strengthen plastic after animal studies linked it to early puberty and a rise in breast and prostate cancers. Yet new UCLA research demonstrates that BPS (Bisphenol S), a common replacement for BPA, speeds up embryonic development and disrupts the reproductive system. Reported in the Feb. 1 edition of the journal Endocrinology, the animal study is the first to examine the effects of BPA and BPS on key brain cells and genes that control the growth and function of organs involved in reproduction.”

Transition Report 2015-16 Rebalancing finance

“The EBRD [European Bank for Reconstruction and Development] is owned by 65 countries, the European Union and the European Investment Bank. The EBRD President is currently Sir Suma Chakrabarti, who took office in 2012. Each shareholder is represented on the Board of Governors, which has overall authority over the EBRD. Under the guidance of the Board of Directors, the President manages… Continue Reading

Why the US Needs a New, Tech-driven Growth Strategy

Gregory Tassey, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, February 8, 2016 “The most important measure of long-term economic growth is the rate at which we increase productivity, because that is what drives long-term wage growth, writes Gregory Tassey in the Christian Science Monitor. Yet by this metric, the prospects for resurgent growth in the U.S. economy… Continue Reading

Supreme Court Appointment Process: Roles of the President, Judiciary Committee, and Senate

Follow up to posting – Longest-serving member of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia dies see Supreme Court Appointment Process: Roles of the President, Judiciary Committee, and Senate. Denis Steven Rutkus, Specialist on the Federal Judiciary. February 19, 2010. “The appointment of a Supreme Court Justice is an event of major significance in American politics. Each… Continue Reading

Wikipedia at 15: Millions of readers in scores of languages

Pew Factank: “Wikipedia turn[ed] 15 on Friday [January 15, 2016]. A key element in its creators’ vision of a user-generated online encyclopedia was to make it a repository of information serving audiences in multiple languages. The first non-English versions launched shortly after the Wikipedia’s founding in 2001, with offerings in six languages – German, Catalan, Swedish, French, Spanish and… Continue Reading

After Google Spain and Charlie Hebdo: The Continuing Evolution of European Union Data Privacy Law in a Time of Change

Voss, W. Gregory, After Google Spain and Charlie Hebdo: The Continuing Evolution of European Union Data Privacy Law in a Time of Change (January 6, 2016). Business Lawyer, Vol. 71, No. 1, 2015/2016. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2711996 “This article investigates various developments over that year that helped (or are helping) reshape European Union… Continue Reading

Kickstarter seeks to make CIA Records Search Tool accessible to researchers

Michael Franco – cnet: “Currently, more than 11 million pages of declassified CIA documents are publicly available via an electronic database called CREST, or the CIA Records Search Tool. While some of these documents — like a batch of UFO related files the CIA cleverly calls its X-Files — are available online, many can only… Continue Reading